Okayyy so I hadn't planned on continuing this, so I'm sorry if it isn't up to par or is a disappointment compared to last chapter for anybody who liked the first one. Like I said, this was originally a one-shot, so I have absolutely no idea where this story is going or how long it will be. But since I got some requests to continue I thought I'd take a stab at it. I have no plot line planned out, so it's pretty much going to be a see-where-it-takes-me kind of story that I make up as I go along:) Anyways I hope you enjoy it(: Lemme know!
"Aleeeeeeeec! Wakey wakey!"
"Jace! Shut up," Alec groaned.
"Then feed me!" He whined.
"No. I'm poor enough as it is. You want to eat what little food I have, then you have to pay me for it, and you also have to shut up."
"You suck," was his mature reply.
Jace was 20 but his maturity level seemed to better at a pace with the age of a fifth grader. Actually, the youngest Lightwood was more mature than Jace, and he was actually a literal fifth grader. Jace looked the complete opposite of Alec. He was all black and white and melding into the background whereas Jace was bright, loud, and completely golden; everything - his skin, eyes, hair - everything was gold. The Lightwood family started fostering him when he was about 8 after his dad lost rights to him for being abusive. They had adopted him shortly after. The two were brothers but they were also best friends.
"Then go home," Alec snapped back.
Izzy and the rest of the models had planned on celebrating after the show last night. Jace and he had been invited to tag along-an offer Jace hadn't hesitated to accept-but Max was going to be staying with Alec for the night while their parents were out of town, so he'd had to politely decline. Not that the invite sounded too appealing or was anything he was disappointed to be missing anyway.
Maryse and Robert Lightwood were always traveling around the world on business, and usually they took the youngest Lightwood with them. But Max had wanted to stay in New York to watch Izzy walk the runway, so Alec had volunteered to watch him while his parents finished whatever business they had in London. While Alec and Max went straight to the former's apartment after the show, Izzy and Jace had went from club to club, celebrating and drinking and dancing for hours.
Of course, where else was there to go after all the partying that left you vomiting and blackout drunk, than your responsible older brother's apartment?
"On an empty stomach?"
"Whatever," Alec muttered. "Are Izzy and Max still sleeping?"
"Nope," Izzy replied for him as she made her way to the bedroom door. She leaned against the door frame and smiled. "Well Max is, I guess."
Jace got up from the bed and went out into the kitchen. Alec got up to follow him, but Izzy blocked his way as he got to the door.
"Izzy let me out. I don't want Jace eating my food."
She took a step closer and looked over her shoulder at Jace before shutting the bedroom door and turning back to him.
"Are you going to call him?" She questioned.
Alec sighed. "I don't know Iz. I don't even know him."
He could see her roll her eyes skyward. "That's why people date, Alec: to get to know each other."
"I know what dating is," he scowled. "It's just not something that interests me at the moment."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Not interested in dating, or not interested in dating Magnus?"
"Look, dating just isn't my thing."
"Well then what is your thing? Dying alone?"
He glared at her. "Iz, I'm 22. Stop pressuring me. I'm not saying that I'll never date. It's just not a good time right now. I've got classes and have to spend all my free time working if I want to be able to afford living on my own."
"Alec," she sighed. "There are always going to be reasons not to do something, and you're going to find even more when you're looking for them-"
"I'm not looking for reasons," he interrupted.
She gave him a pointed look. "Yes you are. You never put yourself out there. Can't you just give someone a chance? Magnus is great."
"I'm sure he is." More than that, Magnus seemed to be everything Alec couldn't be: successful and charming, confident and carefree, beautiful and outgoing. Why the hell would a guy like that want to date a fashion-deprived, socially awkward college student who worked at a minimum wage coffee shop and could barely afford to feed himself and pay rent?
"Is this about Mom and Dad?" Izzy asked suddenly.
He sighed and flopped down on his bed, lying on his back with his face looking up to the ceiling.
"Alec, you can't hide from them forever."
"And I'm not planning on it. Just a few more good years," he mumbled. He didn't have a necessarily bad relationship with his parents, they were just distant. He didn't feel that they knew him at all. By the time he had graduated high school, he knew that he was gay. Izzy knew, but she, along with a few friends from the university and café that Alec trusted and knew definitely did not run in the same circles as his parents, were the only ones he'd ever told. He wasn't ashamed of himself; he had spent years of high school hating who he was, but had gradually grown to accept himself, primarily due to a large portion of influence from his sister, but he was still scared about other people's reactions. If it had taken him as long as it did to even accept himself, how long would it take others to accept him?
One of the biggest issues he'd had in high school while dealing with his sexuality was the expectations of his parents. He didn't have any reason to believe that they would disown him, but he'd always felt judged in their presence. He had done his part growing up, trying to be the perfect son. He'd gotten good grades, played on the soccer team and never got into fights. It never felt like enough though. The Lightwood parents weren't sentimental people; they didn't often congratulate or compliment their children.
Though his parents had never been very comforting and seemed to struggle with things that were different than the norm, they weren't particularly close minded or cold. Isabelle has encouraged him to come out since his high school graduation, insisting that, though his parents may be shocked at first, she was sure they would quickly accept him. He could tell that she was frustrated and worried about the fact that he still seemed to take his parents' approval so seriously, but he couldn't help it. He didn't know how to explain it to himself, let alone his little sister. Of course it isn't uncommon for kids to feel the need to have their parents' approval, but Alec could tell that wasn't the only reason holding him back. He just wasn't ready yet.
"Well in my opinion, you'd be an idiot not to go for it."
"Well it's a good thing I didn't ask for your opinion then."
She sent him a half hearted glare. "Do you realize how awkward this could make things for me at work?"
His head snapped up at the mention of work. "Oh shit, what time is it?"
"Don't try and change the subject," she scolded, but still reached for his phone on the nightstand next to her. "11:00."
"Shit!" Alec jumped up and ran into his closet. He grabbed a sweat shirt and a pair of dark jeans along with his beat up, black and white converse.
"You have to work? At 11:00 in the morning on a Sunday?" Izzy asked him incredulously.
"No, I have to work at 10:00 in the morning on a Sunday. I'm late." He ran into the bathroom to change quickly.
"Calm down, you're fine. It's not like Tessa would ever fire you or anything," she said as she sat down on his bed and watched him run around the room like a chicken with his head cut off.
She was right of course. Tessa was his boss and they were pretty close actually. He was oddly comfortable around all of his coworkers, especially Tessa and Maia, despite his awkward, anti-social tendencies.
"Yeah but that doesn't mean I should make Maia have to work the whole shift by herself."
He threw the door open quickly and made his way to the front door, pausing long enough to swat Jace on the back of the head from his place on the couch. He had a bowl of cereal in one hand that tipped when Alec hit him and he ended up getting some milk on the couch.
"Ow! Alec, what the hell? My head hurts enough without your abuse, thank you very much," he whined as he set the bowl on the coffee table and started rubbing his temples.
"Hangovers suck huh? You know what else sucks? Starving because your brother ate the last of your food!" Alec called over his shoulder as he opened the front door. "Tell Max I had to work, and that I'll catch him later if he's still here when I get back."
Jace mumbled an agreement as he turned his attention back to the TV.
"Oh wait," Izzy called from the doorway to his bedroom. The apartment was small enough that you could stand at the front door and see the majority of the rest. "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"
"I thought that was tomorrow," Alec said as he paused at the front door. "Mom and Dad are already home?"
Izzy shook her head and crossed her arms as she leaned against the door frame. "They should be back sometime after lunch."
He sighed. Family dinners weren't exactly his favorite times. He loved his family, but he always felt like he was walking on eggshells when it came to his parents. "Yeah, then I guess I'll be there. I'm supposed to be working a double shift but I should be done around 5 so I shouldn't be late."
With that he turned around and made his way down the rickety stairs as fast as he could without slipping on his still untied shoe laces, and falling face first down to the last level.
He was thankful that the coffee shop was only about two blocks from his apartment so it wasn't more than 5 minutes later that he could see the familiar glass front windows.
He had just shouldered the door open, but couldn't get any words out before he was interrupted.
"You're late Lightwood."
He gave a guilty smile to Maia before ducking his head and hurrying into the back room to grab a green apron from his work locker. He came back out quickly and got behind the counter to apologize to her. She waved her hand dismissively with a teasing smile on her tanned face.
"It's fine Alec. Everybody's allowed to be late once in a while. It isn't as if it was crazy busy or anything anyway."
He let out a breath. "Okay, well it won't happen again. I overslept."
"You overslept? The guy who thinks if he's not up by 8 he's wasting the day?"
"Yeah well we didn't get back from the show until a lot later than I had expected. Plus it isn't like Izzy and Jace are relatively quiet when they get home at 4 a.m., drunk off their asses."
She laughed lightly, "Your family always sounds so entertaining." He snorted in agreement.
"Oh but I forgot about the show. How'd it go? Did Izzy do well?"
"Um, yeah. Izzy was great. It was a really good show," he told her as he turned around and started restocking the stack of styrofoam. He lowered his head and tried to turn his face away completely as he felt his face start to slightly warm. Why had he been the only Lightwood cursed with the obvious blush?
Once all the cups were stacked and he had no more reason to face away from her, he turned back to Maia. She wasn't even looking at him anymore, and instead leaning on the counter with a magazine in her hands.
The rest of the day went by like any other in the quaint coffee house. Maia was scheduled to work two shifts today too so she would be working until his shift was over. She was one of his favorite people to work with. She was funny, but wouldn't try to keep a conversation going the entire time. It was nice to be able to chat but also just to have time to think to himself and organize everything in his head. His current thoughts were a chaotic jumble of designers, parents, and dinners.
"Hey Alec! Look, your sister is mentioned!"
He looked over at Maia to see her turning the magazine over for him to see. He took it from her to see it open to a two page article on the show.
"They already have this out?" He asked astonished.
She shook her head and pointed at the date of the article. "This is last weeks' edition. It's just talking about what everyone is expecting with the new designers, and Magnus Bane was apparently one of the most anticipated this year. Look, there's her name!"
He read the paragraph that she was pointing at and raised his eyebrows. It was just a sentence or two talking about the new models that were expected to have promising futures after the show and some quotes from Magnus about how excited he was to work with them. He was impressed with how quickly the public had been taken by his younger sister. He looked up at her. "Could I borrow this? I don't know if she's seen it."
"Yeah of course. You can just take it. I read through it today."
"Cool thanks," he smiled.
"No problem."
He glanced at the clock to see that his shift was done in ten minutes.
"What are you so anxious for? Hot date?" Maia teased. He looked over at her in confusion. "That's like the tenth time you've looked at the clock in the last half an hour."
"It is?" He hadn't been paying attention much to anything besides customers and the whirling thoughts in his head.
"Yeah," she chuckled. "What's up?"
He sighed as he ran his hands through his shaggy hair. "Family dinner," he replied in a clearly faked, overly cheerful voice.
Maia had a sympathetic smile on her face. It wasn't exactly classified information that his parents were constantly absent.
"Well I can lock up. I know you won't be able to think about anything else until then anyway. Go home and mentally prepare or do some push ups or whatever it is you do to calm down," she offered.
"No it's fine. I was already late and I don't want you to have to-"
"Alec, go." He paused, looking at her, but she just smiled reassuringly.
He nodded absentmindedly before putting away his apron and grabbing his phone from his locker. He had a missed call from Izzy. He dialed her number and waved to Maia, the phone to his ear, as he walked out of the cafe and into the cool, autumn air of New York City, heading towards his apartment building.
"Hey," Izzy answered from the other end of the phone once the ringing stopped.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Well I wanted to call to let you know that dinner is still at 6, and I took Max back home earlier so you don't have to bring him."
"Alright. Wait does that mean Jace is still at my place?"
She snorted. "I dunno. I'm not his babysitter."
He rolled his eyes even though she wouldn't be able to see over the phone. "Okay see you at 6."
He shoved his phone back into his pocket and continued on until the run-down building that was his current residence loomed up in front of him. He exhaled a deep breath and started trudging his way up the stairs as he thought about the conversation he knew he would eventually have to have with his parents. Izzy would be shooting him looks all throughout dinner, like she always did when their whole family got together, and he would pointedly ignore her, as per usual. Yes, he knew it would have to happen, but not tonight. Just thinking about it twisted his stomach into the gut wrenching knots that reminded him of high school. Maybe he'd just wait one more year...
Sooooo it's a bit shorter than last chapter,I know, but I haven't completely finished the next part (the dinner), and I felt bad about making everyone who wanted a continuation to keep wondering if it was going to happen. Plus, if I added the dinner I think this chapter would be a lot longer. I don't know how I feel about this one, but I hope it did some justice to what you guys were hoping for.